Keralas Pinarayi Vijayan Govt Under Fire After Latest Encounter Of Suspected Maoist

The killing of a suspected Maoist in Kerala ’s Wayanad district earlier this week has led to widespread criticism of the Pinarayi Vijayan -led government in the state, which has always taken pride in its resistance to extra-judicial killings. S. Velmurugan, from Periyakulam in Theni district of Tamil Nadu , was shot dead by the police at an isolated forest region of Padinjarathara in Wayanad on Tuesday morning.

This is the fourth encounter killing by the Thunderbolt commandos, an elite police force set up for counter-insurgency operations, since the Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government came to power in 2016. The force was set up in 2012. Eight alleged Maoists have been killed so far in these encounters, which have been criticised by activists, opposition leaders and even other Left parties. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which leads the LDF coalition, has nationally always taken a stand against extra-judicial killings involving trigger-happy counter-insurgency forces. 

Wayanad police superintendent G. Poonguzhali told HuffPost India that the Padinjarathara incident occurred at around 9.30 am on Tuesday when the Thunderbolt force was engaged in a search operation in the mountain forests near the Bappanam Mala tribal hamlet. According to Poonguzhali, half-a-dozen Maoists who were suspected to be hiding in the forests opened fire unexpectedly, and the commandos shot back in self-defence. The exchange lasted for about 40 minutes, she said, and the Thunderbolt team found Velmurugan lying dead on the ground when they inspected the area afterwards. Poonguzhali claimed that the police had recovered a .303 rifle and a few leaflets from the spot.

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However, the police’s version has been disputed by people near the area. Residents of the tribal hamlet and people who live in the foothills of the Banasura Hills told local TV channels and newspapers that they heard shots at around 5.30 am from the area where the incident occurred. They also alleged that the cops were conducting a fake encounter after getting advance information about the hideout of suspected Maoists. Journalists were prevented from entering the area for more than 24 hours after the district police announced the killing.

Police claim that 32-year-old Velmurugan was a member of Kabani Dalam, a sub-section of the Western Ghats Special Zone Committee of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). According to the police, five other members of the group disappeared into the forests after the firing.

Velmurugan’s mother Kannammal and his brother S. Murugan, who came to Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode on Wednesday evening to receive the body and to take it back to their native Tamil Nadu village, told media persons that it was a fake encounter as there were numerous bullet injuries on different parts of the body of the man, who hailed from a Scheduled Caste community.

“The wounds force us to suspect that he was shot from close range. A complaint has been filed with the Madurai bench of Madras High Court and the case will come up for consideration soon. Initially, the police allowed me to see only the face of my brother. After I insisted, they showed me the rest of his body, which was riddled with bullets,’’ S. Murugan told HuffPost India over the phone.

Velmurugan’s funeral was conducted amid heavy police security on Thursday morning.

Responding to Tuesday’s incident, Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala said that only a high-level inquiry into all the encounter killings under Pinarayi Vijayan rule could help restore people’s faith in rule of law. 

“Eight suspected Maoists have been killed in an extra-judicial way under this government. It is quite surprising that this is happening under a Communist chief minister,” he said.

Kerala Congress chief Mullappally Ramachandran has also termed the latest incident a fake encounter. Human rights activist C.P. Rasheed has alleged that the state government was trying to divert public attention by killing Maoists in fake encounters whenever it found itself on the defensive.

In his daily press briefings on COVID-19 pandemic issues, Vijayan ignored questions related to the recurring encounter killings. However, last year after an alleged encounter in Attapady, he had defended the police by claiming that the opposition was glorifying Maoists.

“The Maoists are not holy souls or lambs,” he had said then. 

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The other encounters in Kerala

Velmurugan’s encounter comes 19 months after 25-year-old suspected Maoist C.P. Jaleel was shot dead in a similar manner at a private tourist resort in Wayanad. Police say that on March 6, 2019, Jaleel came to Upavan resort at Lakkidi along with another Maoist to demand money from its owners. Jaleel died on the spot after getting shot on the head and shoulder while his unhurt companion allegedly escaped to the nearby forests. According to the Thunderbolt team, its members were on a routine search operation at Lakkidi when they accidentally entered the scene. They were forced to open fire when Jaleel used his pistol to attack them, claimed officials. However, a forensic report published by Malayalam media on February 8,2020, stated clearly that no shots had been fired from the rifle which was retrieved from near Jaleel’s body. The report also said that no firearm discharge residues were detected from the “country-made SBBL firearm” when barrel washings from the weapon were tested.

On October 28, 2019, four suspected Maoists named Manivasakam, Karthi, Aravind and Rema were killed by Thunderbolt inside the forests at Manjeekandi in Kerala’s major tribal region Attappady. All the deceased were natives of Tamil Nadu and there were reports that they were planning to surrender due to resource crunch and health complications. Even the Communist Party of India, the second-largest constituent of the LDF, called the incident a fake encounter, putting CM Vijayan, who also holds the home portfolio, on the backfoot. In the days following the Manjeekandi incident, the home department slapped the draconian UAPA on two students in Kozhikode, who incidentally were card-carrying members of the CPI(M), for distributing pamphlets demanding justice for the killed Maoists. They were given bail by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in September.

On November 24, 2016, CPI (Maoist) central committee member Kuppu Devaraj and cadre Ajitha were killed in an encounter at Karulai near Nilambur in Malappuram district. 

Human rights organisations and Kerala’s Congress-led opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) have alleged that all these encounters are fake.

According to the police, four dalams (Maoist armed squads) are operating in Kerala and they comprise 40 guerrillas, mostly non-Malayalis. The Thunderbolt force comprises commandos in the 19-21 age group who then undergo 18 months’ intense training in guerrilla and jungle warfare. They are armed with Insas rifles, AK-47s, Trichy Assault Rifles (TAR) and GLOCK pistols.

“By giving a free hand to the Thunderbolt to orchestrate fake encounters,  the LDF government in Kerala is setting a dubious record of annihilating political rebels in the way states like Chhattisgarh and erstwhile Andhra Pradesh have done for long. In those areas, Maoists attacked state forces regularly for power and control and that had forced the forces to retaliate.  But in Kerala, the Maoists have not launched any such attack on the state forces so far and, in fact, they have maintained through their public statements that they were involved only in political campaigns and no militant actions,” said senior journalist and human rights activist N.P. Chekkutty.

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Chekkutty also pointed out that it is no secret that Maoist groups have been active in the tribal regions in the northern parts of Kerala, especially the forest belt from Wayanad to Palakkad, where all the four encounters have taken place. But the Vijayan government does not seem to have reviewed the violent nature of the incidents or the public criticism around it. 

“This is surprising because it clearly departs from the consistent stand maintained by the earlier Left governments in Kerala, which maintained that political rivals would be encountered not through police action but through negotiations and public campaigns,’’ added Chekkutty.

Right from the 1960s, when the Naxalite movement became active in Kerala, both CPI and CPI(M) have taken a stand that such rebels should not be eliminated through extrajudicial killings. The parties had always opposed fake encounters targeting Naxalites, who attacked police stations and houses of landlords in those days.

When firebrand Naxalite leader A. Varghese, who was operating from the Thrissilery-Thirunelli forests in North Wayanad, was shot dead in an “encounter”, CPI(M) and its Malayalam mouthpiece Deshabhimani had rejected the then state government’s claims and asserted that it was a cold-blooded murder of a political activist.